“One Thing You Can Do” – the third in a series of short essays

November 15, 2018

Don’t Look Away

Please don’t look away. If you only have one thing to do, look at a wonderful blog site like the Yale Climate Change Communications website (http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/) or Grist (https://grist.org/) where one can read articles on or in response to climate change, listen to podcasts or watch a short video. Or one can read a book on climate that grabs your attention, and even if it gets difficult, keep reading it to the end. Don’t stop; don’t look away.

I looked away for
many years and then one day – the details aren’t really that important because
it will be different for everyone – I could not look away anymore. I had to
face reality. I had to find out. I consciously even chose to read a book on
climate change that I knew would be difficult, but I did it. My head had been
in the sand way too long. It was time to pull it out.

I have no idea and probably neither do you what will happen when you stop looking away; that is assuming you are looking away. I’m not about to give advice on that level, because it’s different for everyone and there is no one answer. What is important, I think, is to not turn away, not avoid and then see what will unfold, how you may want to respond.

The outrageous and unconventional American novelist, Henry Miller once said, “Don’t look away. Look straight at everything. Look it all in the eye, good and bad.” This is my simple advice today.

Judy Fox

I was born in New York City in 1947. It begins to seem like a long time ago – before there were computers, video games, the internet, cell phones or even commercial jets. It was a time when black and white television was just beginning and my early memory is watching “Howdy Doody.”
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